A fair-labor group established by colleges and universities concerned about a factory in Mexico has yet to come to Iowa State.The University of Iowa has already taken an active role in participating with the Worker Rights Consortium to combat unfair policies put on Nike-contracted factory workers, which provide athletic apparel to campuses across the U.S.The fair-labor group recently released a report on a Kukdong Corporation factory in Puebla, Mexico, and said the factory violated an agreement they had made with the WRC, said Scott Nova, WRC executive director.He said WRC discovered workers who were unable to return to the factory after a strike.”The essential question now is what does Nike intend to do about this problem,” he said. “Right now we have grave concerns about whether these workers are going to be allowed to return.”James Tracy, member of the UI’s Students Against Sweatshops, said the group is concerned that Nike is not portraying the Kukdong situation as seriously as it should be.”I think that what’s going on down there is much more serious than Nike makes it out to be,” he said.Tracy said he does not believe the University of Iowa should be involved with Nike.”In theory, the university should not enrich itself on the backs of overseas workers,” he said.Iowa State is not a member of the WRC, and Paul Tanaka, ISU director of University Legal Services, said the decision to join a fair-labor organization contains many complex issues.”I certainly think the university is open to membership, but there are many unresolved issues around this area of what is an effective program,” he said. “Certainly I think Iowa State University, and every university in the country, is interested in improving labor conditions.”Juanita Lovejoy, ISU program director of the office of intellectual property and technology transfer, said members of the university went to a meeting on fair-labor organizations and practices about three years ago.”It was evident that it was going to be extremely difficult for anyone to be effective, and we took the position of waiting to see which organization could be most effective before paying money to join any of them,” she said.Lovejoy said Iowa State sends a letter to all of its trademark licensees saying that it doesn’t approve of unfair practices.”Until there is something more constructive that can be done, currently the position is that we won’t be joining any consortium or labor group,” she said.